Off the Red List

         

                 The move was long overdue, but it has happened at last. On Friday, United Kingdom announced that Pakistan would be taken off Covid-19 red list for travel from September 22, 2021. The decision comes as a relief to many people whose plans for travelling to the United Kingdom had been on hold since 09th April, 2021 where travel for passenger from Pakistan and other countries were added to red list were curtailed unless they were British or Irish nationals or had residency rights.

                  Inclusion on the red list translated to prohibitive costs for  prospective travelers including British National  who had to undergo a 10 day quarantine period at the designated hotels  a minimum expenditures of 2286 UK Pounds per Adult. Aside from that, pre departing testing and PCR Test will further add to higher cost. Speculation about  travel restriction had been doing the rounds since March when the alarming percentage of visitor from Pakistan  were tested positive for Covid-19. The British government expressed concerns about the comprehensiveness of Pakistan's Covid-19 data and its rate of vaccination to justify the travel restrictions. However the UK's decision to retain Pakistan on the Red List in the August 2021 even as it moved India to amber list in its "Quarantine Traffic Light System".

                Several alleged discrimination, saying that politics rather than data was the primary consideration behind the move. Pakistan political leadership too was justifiably outraged. After all, India's infection rate at the time was far higher  then that the Pakistan. Ironically, just a couple of months later, the Economist ranked Pakistan as among the best performing countries  for handling the pandemic. There are certainly aspects for Coronavirus  management, especially by developed nations towards those less, so, that smack.  of discrimination. The European Union  for example, needs to review its policy of not accepting the Chinese vaccines as a valid proof of immunity. The only exception thus far is Sinovac, but that too is only accepted by eight EU/Schengen countries. This is despite the fact that  WHO several months ago said that  any Covid-19 Vaccines it had authorized  for emergency use which included the Chinese vaccine should be recognize by the countries that were opening up their borders to inoculated visitors. The global health authority correctly said that  discriminating against certain vaccine would create a two tier system as an approach only exacerbates the inequities in the handling of the pandemic.